PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR ARTS EDUCATORS 2005 GRANTS

Recognizing that teachers should learn what they are expected to teach, the LRSD partnership with highly qualified, nationally recognized clinicians, artists, organizations and instituti

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR ARTS EDUCATORS 2005 GRANTS

Program Abstracts

Little Rock School District

810 West MarkhamLittle Rock, AR 72201Contact: I.J Routen

Phone: (510) 447-1000

Email Address: irma.routen@LRSD.org

The Little Rock School District (LRSD) is the largest public school district in Arkansas, with a K-12 enrollment of 25,868 in 34 elementary, 8 middle and 5 high schools as of October 1, 2004 The demographics of the student population are the inverse of the community, with

approximately two-thirds (68 percent) African American and slightly less than one-third (29 percent) white Of the remaining students, 3 percent are Hispanic, and the rest come from Asian and other minority backgrounds Fifty-nine percent of LRSD students are eligible for free and reduced price lunch, and 40 percent participate in Title I programs

The LRSD currently offers music education for all elementary students as well as a secondary music program for middle and high school students Visual arts education is offered at the middle and high school levels Beginning in the fall 2005, all LRSD elementary school students

in grades K-6 will receive 40 minutes of music and 40 minutes of visual arts education each week of the school year State and local commitment to arts education is strong The Arkansas General Assembly, regular session 2005, passed Act 245, an act to require weekly music and visual arts instruction for all students in grades K-6 The law specifies that the instruction must

be based on the state visual art and music frameworks; children with disabilities or other special needs shall be included, and the instruction shall be provided by a licensed teacher certified to teach art or music, as applicable

By virtue of meeting the poverty criteria as stipulated in the application, 24 elementary schools have been selected for participation in the Little Rock School District Professional Development

for Arts Educators initiative, Expressions Each of the participating schools will be serviced by

fully certified elementary music and visual arts specialists for a total of 48 arts specialists and approximately 48 classroom teachers

Recognizing that teachers should learn what they are expected to teach, the LRSD partnership with highly qualified, nationally recognized clinicians, artists, organizations and institutions (the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Departments of Music and Art; the Arkansas Arts Center Museum School; Southern Methodist University, Meadows School of the Arts, Dallas, Texas; Kalani, Kalani Music; the National Staff Development Council) has developed a rigorous, comprehensive standards-based elementary music education professional development initiative.The initiative is focused on in-depth content knowledge and related teaching practices that will prepare all students to achieve higher standards in the areas of music and visual arts education

Expressions includes nine major components: 1) certification in Orff Schulwerk (Level I, Level

II, Level III) and follow-up on-site sessions, 2) five-day annual seminars and ongoing site-based seminars in World Rhythm Drumming, 3) collegial networking sessions, 4) establishment of a cadre of elementary master arts specialists, 5) MIDI and Arts Technology workshops, 6) a

Basically Blues three-day workshop, 7) model music and visual arts model demonstration labs

and production of video library, 8) annual five- day summer visual arts institutes, and 9) a partnership with the Arkansas Arts Center Museum School

The goals that have been established for Expressions are as follows:

 To establish and nurture an arts educator cadre of master elementary music and visual arts teachers to provide ongoing support for all LRSD elementary teachers;

 To establish and nurture a cadre of master classroom teachers who will collaborate with the arts educators’ cadre to: a) develop a standards-based elementary art curriculum and b) develop a resource bank of integrated lesson plans and instructional strategies that integrate arts instruction with other subject area content;

 To provide an intensive, ongoing professional development program to deepen teacher’s knowledge of the music and visual arts content disciplines and to equip arts educators with integrated arts instructional strategies for all participating teachers; and

 To engage students in developmentally appropriate learning experiences designed to prepare them to achieve the challenging Arkansas fine arts content standards

Phoenix Union High School District

4502 N Central AvenuePhoenix, AZ 85012

Contact: Joan Mason

Phone: (602) 764-1342

Email Address: jmason@phxhs.k12.az.us

The Phoenix Union High School District’s proposal seeks to develop, enhance and expand the capacity of targeted high schools, and feeder schools, having a greater than 50 percent

concentration of low-income students to provide strong standards-based arts education programs

as vital elements of the core academic curricula

Project MASTERWORKS will focus on providing high-quality professional development to

arts educators on how they may effectively assess student performance and achievement within

an aligned and vertically articulated standards-based arts education program The proposal will also seek to demonstrate that students can meet and exceed challenging state student academic achievement standards in the arts Project MASTERWORKS will work to build master teachers who are able to support and recognize student masterworks

Project MASTERWORKS will employ an innovative, holistic approach by treating targeted

schools as unique academic communities, through systemically supporting teachers, counselors, administrators and parents by design and involving appropriate community organizations, where possible, to maximize the impact and sustainability of the improved and enhanced standards-based arts education programs in the target high schools and feeder schools

Project MASTERWORKS seeks to:

 Provide high-quality professional development grounded in effective practice and

research to increase the number of teachers qualified to teach and competently assess and the number of counselors and administrators qualified to effectively support, exemplary standards-based arts education programs Specific emphasis will be placed on providing teachers the pedagogical skills and knowledge necessary to accurately assess student performance within a standards-based arts curriculum; to utilize the resulting data to reflect on and inform their instructional practices to improve student achievement; and to effectively teach to higher standards in the domains of Dance, Drama/Theatre, Music andVisual Arts, while supporting the development of higher order and critical thinking skills,content knowledge, and effective study habits among all the students they serve

Additional emphasis will be placed on providing regular classroom teachers professional development on how to use the arts to access student learning in other core content areas, through integrating and infusing standards-based arts instruction with other core

academic content areas

 Systemically improve and enhance arts education programs by creating a unique, online professional learning community of arts educators within the targeted schools to foster a meaningful, ongoing dialogue concerning reflective practice, student instruction,

assessment and achievement in the arts and to facilitate the delivery of high-quality

sustained professional development opportunities and evidence-based effective instructional practices and curriculum resources.

Tucson Unified School District

2025 E WinsettTucson, AZ 85719

Contact: Joan Ashcraft

Phone: (520) 225-4900

Email Address: joan.ashcraft@tusd.k12.az.us

The goal of Opening Minds through the Arts (OMA) is to raise student achievement for at-risk students by actively supporting and positively engaging students through integrated arts

programming and strengthening arts instruction Over the past three years, OMA has transformedthree impoverished Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) elementary schools into creative, stimulating, positive and productive learning environments Our success in improving teacher effectiveness and enhancing student achievement through OMA has put a national spotlight on TUSD and the OMA project A demand has been created for our professional development (PD) services and materials

At this time, it has become evident that while our PD model appears to have been the basis for the documented successes of OMA, the actual design has not been evaluated nor broadly

delivered We propose a three-year project that will focus on refining, packaging and delivering the OMA PD model through an intense evaluation process We will target the teachers from three of our lowest achieving schools (Cavett, Davidson, and Roberts Elementary Schools) to receive full services for the entire project PD activities for classroom teachers, OMA Arts Integration Specialists, principals and teaching artists will include the Fine Arts Summer Institute(FASI), OMA Artist/Teacher Seminar and Quarterly PD Meetings throughout the school year The OMA PD model will provide experience in constructing arts integrated lesson plans and appropriate delivery of those plans, effective collaboration with professional artists and arts organizations to strengthen lessons and appropriate performance opportunities for students in grades K-5 The most significant impact of this project is the systemic change of classroom instruction to improve student achievement

Lindsay Unified School District

519 E HonoluluLindsay, CA 93247

Contact: Norma Erwin

Phone: (559) 562-5111

Email Address: nerwin@lusd.k12.ca.us

The Lindsay Unified School District (LUSD) Maximizing Education through Discovery and Instruction in the Arts (MEDIA) project will establish a professional development program for the arts and an integrated-arts curriculum at Jefferson, Washington and Lincoln Elementary Schools

The city of Lindsay is a small rural community of approximately 11,000 residents, 33 percent of whom are families living in poverty, and 68 percent of whom speak a language other than

English at home LUSD serves 3,586 students in grades K-12 The majority of the district’s students live in poverty (78.7 percent qualify for free/reduced meal services), and 58 percent are English Learners At our three participating school sites, an average of 82 percent of the students live in poverty; 65 percent are English Learners; and overall academic achievement is low Research on the impact of the arts on learning and its effect on students in high-poverty settings has provided data that demonstrate how an arts-integrated curriculum can improve academic performance in reading and mathematics, energize teachers and develop positive student

attitudes about their community (Catteral, Waldorff, 2001)

MEDIA is organized around a vision of providing opportunities for all students to become responsible, creative, reasoning, understanding and thoughtful citizens MEDIA incorporates artscontent and achievement standards and California’s rigorous academic content standards, as well

as current educational research on best practices and student learning The goals of the program are to increase student achievement; provide high-quality professional development and support linked to the implementation of arts standards and arts-integrated instruction; integrate arts into literacy lessons and other content areas; bring local artists and arts agencies into partnership withteachers and after-school program staff at all grade levels; and develop an integrated-arts

program to be disseminated throughout all schools in the district and our four-county region Thefollowing six objectives will guide the project:

Objective 1: Each school participating in the MEDIA program will demonstrate annual growth

on the Academic Performance Index (API) equivalent to at least 5 percent of the difference between the school’s current API and the state-established target of 800 All significant

subgroups (Hispanic, English learners, and economically disadvantaged students) will

demonstrate similar growth

Objective 2: The number of students meeting or exceeding California standards in English

language arts and mathematics will increase by at least 1/3 each year as measured by the

California Standards Tests (CST)

Objective 3: By June 2008, 80 percent of students at our target sites will meet or exceed

standards in English language arts and mathematics, as measured by LUSD multiple measures Standards Accountability System (25 percent by June 2006; 50 percent by June 2007; 80 percent

by June 2008)

Objective 4: By June 2007, and each year of the project, students in grades one through six will

identify and apply elements of art to create works of art that communicate ideas and experiences,

as measured by student work, projects, portfolios and classroom observation notes

Objective 5: By June 2007, LUSD will provide a comprehensive, sequential and integrated arts

education program as evidenced by curriculum and implementation in classrooms

Objective 6: By the end of Year 1 (June 2006), eight K-3 teachers per site (24), three fourth

through sixth grade teachers per site (9), two Resource Specialist, and 24 After School Program staff will be provided with professional development activities that target arts instruction and integration of the arts into the core curriculum as documented by the professional development plan

Objective 7: By the end of Year 2 (June 2007), eight K-3 teachers per site (24), three fourth

through sixth grade teachers per site (9), two Resource Specialists, and 24 After School Program Staff will participate in advanced professional development workshops that target arts instructionand integration of the arts into the core curriculum, as evidenced by the professional

development plan

West Contra Costa Unified School District

1108 Bissell AvenueRichmond, CA 94801

Contact: Cynthia LeBlanc

Phone: (510) 620-2193

Email Address: cleblanc@wccsd.k12.ca.us

The proposed project will increase academic achievement and self-awareness in inner-city youth

by training teachers to engage students in performing and new media arts activities that link to California academic standards and the District’s Open Court language arts curriculum and promote cultural pride and cross-cultural understanding The project expands on a proven model backed by over five years of experience and research

The three Title I elementary schools selected for the project (Grant, Lincoln and Washington Elementary) are characteristic of our ethnically diverse, low-income community of Richmond,

CA All have high levels of poverty and large numbers of English Language Learners, a

combination correlated with low academic achievement All three schools rank below average onthe state Academic Performance Index (API), with two scoring 1 out of 10 The teacher-student ratio in our classrooms is 1 to 32—a major cause of high teacher turnover Approximately 60 percent of our teachers are first year, with some still working towards credentials Research shows that training and mentoring new teachers has a positive impact on retention

Learning Without Borders Professional Development project goals are:

 Increase the capacity, skill, confidence and leadership of fourth- through sixth-grade teachers to integrate arts with other core subject areas, especially the Open Court

program;

 Train artists and experienced teachers to mentor and support newer participants;

 Develop and implement curriculum that meets rigorous academic standards and

positively impacts academic achievement and youth development; and

 Foster a learning community of educators at each participating school through which teachers collaborate to improve curriculum and teaching practice

Over three years, we will adapt and expand our successful model for fourth-grade teachers to serve fifth- and sixth-grade teachers and to encourage more direct participation by teachers in creating and implementing arts curriculum Master teachers and artists will lead 30 hours of professional development workshops and “lead teachers” at each site will mentor new

participants By the end of the grant period, 27 teachers will be trained and the project will directly benefit 870 students The East Bay Center will also work with established partners such

as the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, KQED Education Network and Asian Art Museum to create a community of arts learners at each school, steeped in high-quality arts education, with the support needed to successfully improve achievement through arts integration

San Bernardino County Superintendent

601 North E StreetSan Bernardino, CA 92410

Contact: Kimberly Cavanagh

Phone: (909) 386-2607

Email Address: kim_cavanagh@sbcss.k12.ca.us

Beyond Borders: Literacy Through Performing Arts is a professional development for arts

educators project offered in collaboration among San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools; East L.A Classic Theatre (ECT); the San Bernardino County Arts Council; California State University, San Bernardino; the California Arts Projects for the counties of Riverside, Inyo,Mono, and San Bernardino (RIMS CAP); and five school districts across the county (Chino USD, San Bernardino City USD, Rialto USD, Victor ESD, and Colton USD) The project is designed to directly serve 299 teachers in seven school sites highly impacted by poverty and limited English proficiency, through four mutually supportive components: 1) the creation of a cadre of teacher leaders at each site who will receive intensive professional development,

including participation in a two-week summer institute provided by RIMS CAP, monthly

ongoing training provided by project staff, and an intensive in-class arts integrated instruction practicum provided in collaboration with ECT, 2) the creation of design studio classrooms at each site to serve as models for other teachers to observe and emulate, 3) ongoing, onsite trainingopportunities for all teachers of the target sites, to ensure that all teachers have the foundation of

knowledge in the California Visual and Performing Arts Standards, California Reading

Language Arts Standards, and appropriate instructional strategies for providing arts-integrated

language arts instruction, and 4) the infusion of training and expertise in research-validated instructional strategies for accelerating achievement of English learners and socio-economically disadvantaged students throughout all components of the program

Beyond Borders project objectives target expansion of standards-based arts instruction (through the provision of intensive leadership training for six teachers per site and ongoing monthly training for all teachers at each site and demonstrated annual increases in teacher awareness, understanding, knowledge, skills and expertise in effective arts-integrated English language arts

instruction); improvement of student achievement of California Visual and Performing Arts Standards; and improvement of student academic achievement (as measured by California Standards Test) The Beyond Borders design intensively integrates arts instruction within the

English language arts curriculum at each of the seven target schools

KIPP Bayview Academy

1060 Key AvenueSan Francisco, CA 94124

Contact: Molly Wood

Phone: (415) 308-0881

Email Address: mwood@kippbayview.org

A consortium of Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) charter and small schools will offer an innovative media arts professional development program, the Digital Teachers Project, to their fifth- through eighth- grade language arts, social studies and arts educators Digital Teachers will help educators learn the medium of digital storytelling and use it to teach challenging standards and skills in language arts, social studies and visual and media arts to low-income KIPP students from under-resourced neighborhoods KIPP Schools, led by lead LEA KIPP Bayview Academy, will partner with Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination grantee Streetside Stories

Using tested curriculum developed with the support of the U.S Department of Education’s Arts

in Education Model Development and Dissemination program, Streetside and KIPP will provide intensive training for at least 20 teachers each year for two years to integrate digital storytelling,

an art form that combines media arts, literary arts and visual arts, into the core curriculum of their language arts, social studies and arts classes Teachers will use Project Zero’s Teaching for Understanding model to develop curriculum that helps students meet grade-appropriate visual arts, language arts and social studies standards, then implement their challenging, standards-based digital storytelling curriculum with intensive support from Streetside mentors Educators will receive intensive training on projects’ mobile digital media labs, which will become part of the schools’ media arts infrastructure

At the end of the project period, one educator from each school will team with Digital Teachers staff to offer replication training to an additional 15 Bay Area charter school educators

Digital Teachers will build the skills of individual teachers, helping them to raise student

achievement through an innovative arts program At the same time, the project will build KIPP’scapacity, creating a tested and sustainable media arts program that can be replicated throughout the Consortium, at other charter schools and at KIPP schools nationwide

Middletown City Public Schools

311 Hunting HillMiddletown, CT 06457

Contact: Gene Nocera

Phone: (860) 347-8594

Email Address: nocerag@mps1.org

This project will provide professional development opportunities for urban teachers at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Middletown, Connecticut Development opportunities supported by the grant will allow teachers the opportunity to gain knowledge and skill in personal

development within the arts as well as knowledge of theory and strategies to use as they integratethe Connecticut Common Core of Learning Standards in the Arts with Connecticut Common Core of Learning Core Content Standards in their classrooms Experts in the various arenas of the arts from the Hartford Children’s Theatre, as well as faculty at Saint Joseph College, will provide instruction Study of theory, application of learning and classroom support for

implementation will continue throughout the school year and into the summer months

Evaluation of the program will be conducted throughout the life of the grant through surveys of teachers and children and through district mandated assessments, classroom assessments and ethnographic data collection Evaluation and feedback will be provided to individual teachers as they participate in the activities provided through the grant

The District School Board of Collier County

5775 Osceola TrailNaples, FL 34109

Contact: Linda Cummings

Phone: (239) 377-0087

Email Address: cumminli@collier.k12.fl.us

This project is a collaboration of the District School Board of Collier County (CCPS) and The Philharmonic Center for the Arts The project focus is on the implementation of a research-basedmusic and arts curriculum and comprehensive teacher training among all faculty in selected elementary, middle and high schools Students are primarily from low-income homes and attendschools that are considerable distances from museums and theaters The Philharmonic Center of the Performing Arts funded a pilot of the research-based Music Connect curriculum in four Collier County elementary schools over the past three years Its immediate success in increasingstudent enjoyment and knowledge of the arts through integration of lessons within reading, language arts, social studies and math demonstrates the value of this curriculum Through the expertise of music and art educators and professional artists training teachers in the integration of

music and art with core academic subjects, students will gain valuable learning skills Music Connect integrates music and visual art with the core subject areas of science, social studies,

reading, language arts and mathematics This curriculum mirrors the high standards reflected in the National Standards as well as the Florida Sunshine State Standards Enrichment activities conducted at The Philharmonic Center for the Arts will reinforce the curriculum through

theatrical and musical presentations

 Increase enrichment programs for the students, which reinforce the music education and the integration of music with other subjects; and

 Train music, arts and core academic educators to work in collaboration with subject areas

to improve student knowledge of the arts and to support learning in mathematics, science,social studies and language arts

Outcomes:

 Improved student achievement in music, literacy and math;

 Improved teaching quality and alignment of integrated music curriculum K-12;

 Increased integration of music into other subject areas; and

 Increased student/teacher understanding of curricular connections through enrichment opportunities

Clarke County School District

240 Mitchell Bridge RoadAthens, GA 30606

Contact: Jose Boza

Phone: (706) 546-7721

Email Address: Bozaj@clarke.k12.ga.us

The Clarke County School District (CCSD) in Athens, Georgia, has 11,367 students in 13 elementary schools; 4 middle schools; 2 traditional high schools; an alternative school; and a non-punitive, alternative high school Sixty-six percent of our K-12 students are eligible for the federal lunch program Eleven of our elementary schools and all four middle schools have poverty rates above 50 percent In these 15 schools, we have 21 art teachers and 10 music teachers who teach 7,523 children From one-third to one-half of K-8 students do not meet academic standards, despite the efforts of many outstanding teachers The Focus on the Arts Partnership has been formed between CCSD, the University of Georgia’s College of Education (UGA), and the Georgia Museum of Art (GMOA), also located in Athens Over the course of three years, the proposed project will provide 31 fine-arts teachers and 90 classroom and

resource teachers (special education, English for Speakers of Other Languages, gifted, Early Intervention Program and reading) with sustained, intensive, teacher-designed professional-learning opportunities based on need and on research regarding the potential impact the fine arts

have on student academic achievement A Professional Development for Arts Educators grant

would allow CCSD to accomplish the following outcomes: 121 teachers will deepen their knowledge of content and pedagogy through professional-learning communities; 90 classroom and resource teachers will learn how to incorporate art, music, drama and dance into their teaching; fine-arts teachers will write and implement performance standards in the arts; fine-arts teachers will learn how to utilize technology for the arts; all K-8 teachers will be able to

recognize children with a range of learning styles and intelligences, which will lead to a higher percentage of African American and Hispanic children being referred for the district’s gifted program; and student academic achievement and motivation to learn will improve

Chicago Public Schools

125 South Clark Street

4th FloorChicago, IL 60603Contact: Carolann Fleming

Phone: (773) 553-1967

Email Address: cafleming@cps.k12.il.us

Chicago Public Schools Office of Academic Enhancement’s Fine and Performing Arts Magnet Cluster Program (FRAMCP) and Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) will conduct Building Curriculum, Community and Leadership through the Arts (BCCLA)—a sustained and continuous program of professional development in arts integration for 44 magnet cluster

schools Based on Title I criteria, 50 percent or more of the students in these schools come from low-income families

BCCLA will use the resources of its external partner (CAPE) to increase the capacity of target schools through professional development focused on the following goals and objectives: 1) develop and deepen arts integrated curriculum including assessment and documentation; 2) improve the quality of the schools’ educational community; and 3) support and encourage schoolleadership in arts planning and implementation

While principals, classroom teachers and parents receive professional development, the primary recipients are the magnet cluster lead teachers (MCLTs) Building on an existing successful CAPE model, BCCLA will provide sequential professional development to three categories of schools defined by their readiness levels: 1) model schools, 2) laboratory schools and 3) mentee schools The model schools will receive intensive professional development from experts, then serve as demonstration sites and partners for the 11 laboratory schools, who will, in turn, do the same for the 30 mentee schools The MCLTs will provide professional development within and across categories of schools Action research conducted by individual teachers in their

classrooms will serve as the primary mechanism to empower them in assessing, monitoring, and improving their own teaching practices

While the BCCLA project addresses the very real needs of at-risk students, and those who are seriously challenged in their core learning, it also serves the needs of the schools, teachers and artists directly responsible for supporting student learning As a teacher-training program, the project provides teachers with the tools to create innovative and engaging arts-based curriculum that responds to the particular need of their students As a school-planning program, it seeks to promote effective working relationships within the school community, as well as with external arts providers As an arts-integration program, it reaches at-risk students with culturally relevant and engaging learning opportunities

BCCLA will apply research-based understandings of successful practices to the development of

an arts integration model that will be replicated across Chicago Public Schools, in addition to a variety of other educational settings A network of nationally recognized arts education experts will scaffold the project